V-1 Shatter

I don't know why so many people curse the system. If you have any knowledge of history at all, you would have noticed that the world, and all of existence for that matter, was cruel, cruel, and indifferent long before the system's arrival. Yes, it demands that we strive, fight, and shed our blood ceaselessly, but at least it cares for us. At least it has its eye upon us, and at least it favors those of us who are willing to be daring.

That is why it gives us such wonderful presents. Tell me, have you ever known the light of closing a gate, Hero Ranger? You should. If you survive this interrogation at my hand, you should find a gate and end its life. Quell the mana core sustaining it, and see what the system bestows upon you.

You see this instrument at my hip? This is Sorrowfang. This is the reason why you surrendered to me, why you and your men were all taken, peacefully overcome by a depressive malaise. That is because Sorrowfang is infused with the highest sadness. It is not a blade that strikes the flesh, but one that carves betrayal into the heart.

Indeed. I had to crush a wonderful little community to gain this blade. For within the Chernobyl Exclusion Gate was a small oasis, a place of calm resting at the eye of chaos and calamity. And the tears that were shed upon the day of my arrival were things worthy of legend.

I could tell you how their delightful pine trees were decorated with such blinking lights. I could tell you about the soft snow falling constantly within the gate. I can tell you about the children that were spared and the slaves that made them. But above all, I can tell you how the gate felt when I crushed it. It had weakened, you see, and it didn't want to die. But I could take its life, and so I did, and the system allowed it.

You see, when you collapse a High-Tier core, its magic is released back into the world that spawned its existence. But a sliver—a significant sliver is given unto you, for the system remembers your deeds. And it understands what you've taken from the core, and from the narrative of its destruction comes a gift. A gift that is sweet and proper, a gift filled with poignance and meaning, because it was a gift you forged narratively with your own hands.

So, experience my gift once more, little Ranger, and feel the sadness. Feel it, and, once you survive, if you survive, seek a core of your own. It's really an experience you won't forget. Just like this is one that will scar you eternally.

-The Culturist (Legendary Orc) to Hero Ranger Arathan

V-1

Shatter

In that moment, the entire chamber was swallowed by an azure sky. It was sky on a perfect summer day, the purest blue, an endless ocean that spilled into Shiv's very soul like a smooth liquor. His insides came afire, but rather than burning, he was strengthened. Something was melting into him, being forged upon the foundations of his soul. He felt harder within than ever before, heavier too.

As the faintest blue began to fade, he saw a shadow there, hovering just above the mana core. Drifting atop the fissures was Adam. His vector-wings flared wide, Can Hu’s broken shell clasping him. But the Penitent drank in Adam's new power as well; it was slowly coming back together, bits of machinery regenerating. Yet the most striking thing of all was the broken sun hovering above Adam's head. Bit by bit, the exterior of the Righteous Dawn cracked away, dissolving like the shell of a rotten egg.

But within wasn't nothingness.

Within was a pure white ring serving a gateway to a realm of endless blue.

From that realm, the world was painted. And from that realm, Shiv caught sight of something sublime. It was hard to describe what he saw visually, but he knew, deep in his bones, by intuition alone, he was peering into Adam's very soul. At once, the sky blue that painted the chamber collapsed back inward, imploding within that ring before it was launched out in a lancing beam directly into Shiv's body.

The Deathless felt his power surge to new heights, but his power didn't grow alone. Where the Righteous Dawn Ascends increased his skills and made his soul regenerate, now a new notification appeared in his eyes, and it was followed by so many others.

Skill Gained: Veilpiercer 

Skill Replaced: Veilpiercer > Vectors of the Eternal Ascent

Skill Replaced: Vectors of the Eternal Ascent > Phoenix Riposte

Shiv was speechless. These were Adam's skills, and they were connecting themselves to his body.

The Deathless took a step back, and Rebis, trying to break free, tore himself loose from Shiv's grip. Yet the blows he had inflicted upon the mutilated prisoner had delivered their brutal toll. Enoch cried for his avatar to fight, but part of Rebis's head was caved in underneath that armor. Rebis managed a step, vanishing in a burst of acceleration. But that was all he managed. A few meters away, he collapsed once more, equilibrium lost, brain-damaged, body broken.

The mutilated prison went down again and failed to rise once more.

Shiv didn't know where Five or the others were, but he didn't have time. Another flare of pain came from within his stomach, and he looked down, gritting his teeth as he saw how tightly the bolt of black lightning was hooked within his gut. He wrapped his hands around the cutting electricity. His Shapeless Tides crashed against the god's might, and Halsur let out a thunderous roar.

Another three bolts struck Shiv. At the same time, Adam began firing arrow after arrow, his hydrokinetic limbs loosing massive Veilpiercers, Can Hu firing in tandem, using the cannons it had left to pelt the adversary with alloyed pellets. Shiv couldn't see what Stormhalt was doing, but he could hear the impacts. The air crackled as black lightning parried dimensional arrows and hyper-accelerated projectiles.

But just as Stormhalt's electricity struck Shiv, the Deathless's Orichalcum resisted the damage. The tips of the bolts burrowed in but strained against the resistance a centimeter in. Beyond losing a few chips. A few slight holes opened along Shiv's back, but as soon as they did, his body burst into flame and for the first time, Shiv experienced what it was to have Adam's Skill Evolution. He was a phoenix in flight, flames screamed forth from his body, and there was a pressure inside of him that he needed to bestow upon someone else.

Pillar of Orichalcum 238 > 239

He turned. Stormhalt's lightning was no longer harpooned through his midsection. He slammed body-first into the City-Lord and found himself bouncing off from a cocoon of dark voltage. Stormhalt's body was entirely wrapped in bands of rippling lightning. Shiv's blow inflicted no harm on the City-Lord himself, but even so, some of the pressure was alleviated.

Shiv twisted, switching angles as he slammed into Stormhalt twice more. The City Lord tried to strike him down while he was still a phoenix, but Shiv reverted time. His injuries faded altogether, and he blinked back six seconds ago. Just then he saw Stormhalt ripping through the place he was, his lightning unleashing a thunderclap in the air as it broke through the sound barrier. It struck nothing but fading embers.

Another Veilpiercer slammed the side of Stormhalt's head, but a massive explosion of lightning erupted out from his body, spanning in a forest of impending doom.

Skill Replaced: Phoenix Riposte > Commander’s Foresight

Just then, Shiv felt another skill activate within his soul. Commander's Foresight, a skill he experienced before alongside Adam. The change happened as Adam blasted Shiv with radiance again and triggered the moment the Deathless yearned to have a second to think. Everything halted, and an intense heat began to simmer within the core of Shiv's skull.

Commander's Foresight had nothing to do with time. It was simply a matter of hyper-accelerating one's cognition. Shiv could feel that, especially thanks to his Biomancy. His brain activity was moving at a pace outright deleterious to an ordinary Pathbearer, let alone a Pathless. If either he or Adam still had their prior tier of Toughness, both of them likely would have suffered a series of violent aneurysms and promptly died. Less trouble for Shiv, a much greater risk for Adam. 

The Gate Lord was lucky that he managed to evolve his Toughness first.

As time remained still, Shiv looked on at Stormhalt, studied how many bolts of lightning were spreading out from him, and knew that no one was touching the mana core until the City Lord was dealt with. But handling Stormhalt was proving to be a harder matter than Rebis, especially since he didn't have a massive psychological wound to exploit.

But maybe he did. Stormhalt was fragile when it came to Roland. His insecurity was naked and evident. And with Shiv's new Skill Fusion, he might just be able to render Stormhalt brittle within that cocoon as well. But that required an opening, a period of time for him to lobby insults at Stormhalt. And right now, in the thick of the chaos, nothing Shiv said would likely be heard anyway.

I need another angle, the Deathless thought to himself. There were things he could do to Stormhalt. The first among which was move the man. He was near indestructible when wrapped by the Endbreaker's lightning, but he wasn't immovable. The Tarrasque had swatted him around, and Shiv managed to fling him through the bridge earlier. Stormhalt himself wasn't very strong at all, merely a Master-Tier, and he could be surprised.

Alright, so I can go Non-Sequitur and ambush him that way, Shiv thought to himself. And then he winced, his scheming briefly interrupted by a massive flare of pain crawling through his skull. He couldn't sustain this for very long. And without someone else sharing part of the burden, for the umpteenth time he found himself missing Uva.

And frankly, she could have made this prison breakout far smoother, but I also really don't want her to be here. I don't know if the outside's any better, but Starhawk, Valor, Roland, they're all with her. And she's calculated enough to not do anything stupid, and I think she has better odds of staying safe on the outside rather than in the Republic's basement. Wait. Outside…

Shiv's mind spun, and a new plot began to unfold. They didn't need to beat Stormhalt; they just needed to eject him from this room. Shiv might be able to make a Veilpiercer if Adam bestowed the skill on him, even though the Deathless technically didn't know how that process worked. What he needed was for Adam to fire a shot leading out from this chamber, and then Shiv could drag Stormhalt across the dimensional pathway. All they needed was a moment of surprise. 

On the other side, Shiv could eject himself from the scene using Non-Sequitur. Adam could fire an arrow, tipped with necromancy, to utterly obliterate whatever was on the other end. And that might just be able to delay Stormhalt long enough for them to finish this process, to finish breaking the core.

Shiv tried to get a handle on where Adam was, but with all the unfolding chaos around him, he couldn't find the gate lord at all. If only there was a way for him to— and then he felt his awareness detach from his body. For the first time, Shiv saw himself from a third-person perspective and flinched inward internally. 

His body was practically flayed apart in several places. He could see the red-gold gleam of bone shining beneath the bubbling dark red of flowing blood. His Voidmantid armor was spewing mucus-like ichor from several deep wounds. Shiv barely felt any of those injuries. He thought he hadn't been hurt at all ten seconds ago. It seemed that he was wrong. It also seemed that he was so used to pain by this point, anything less than an utterly agonizing injury went beneath his notice.

Yet while he was staring at himself, he saw something over his shoulder. There was a faint glow of dimensionality spilling through between the gaps of Stormhalt's lightning. The City-Lord was trying to engulf the entirety of the chamber, and when he did, there wouldn't be much room left to flee. Worse yet, Shiv didn't know if that Dimensionality was from one of Adam's arrows, or if it was the chamber itself activating, preparing to teleport reinforcements in.

There was no time. They needed to get out, and they needed to be out now. But even with a general plan, Shiv still needed to solve the dilemma of how he was going to get close enough to Stormhalt to lay a hand on him. The Deathless wasn't familiar enough with Adam's skills to—

I'm an idiot, Shiv realized. He'd stolen a pair of boots and a new dagger from the wardens for a reason. His knife had a Pyromancy-Dimensionality Beamcast Enchantment that would allow him to teleport, and his Nightwalkers boots, they allowed him to sink down into the darkness, even revert to the last patch of darkness he was in.

With those final few pieces clicking into shape, Shiv deactivated Commander's Foresight. 

The room exploded into motion, but as black lightning came to cleave Shiv in twain. Too late. He plunged down into his own shadow, felt his body immersed in a puddle of darkness, and he moved forward, swimming through patches of black as he got closer towards Stormhalt.

It was hard to see, hard to tell where everything was in the dark, but Shiv had a good guess based on how far away the City Lord was, and just how fast he could move. A second later, the Deathless exploded out from the black. He slammed shoulder-first into Stormhalt. The Shapeless Tides coiling around his body made the lightning unleashed by the City Lord bend over with a grunt, unprepared for the sudden blow.

Shiv wasn't done. 

As whips of lightning curved back in on the City-Lord, trying to slice through Shiv's protections, he wielded his knife and slashed upward. Deepest Edge flowed through Stormhalt, and this time he shed blood.

Shiv heard the parting of flesh from within the armored cocoon. Stormhalt gurgled. Shiv pointed his blade behind the man's head and channeled his beam portal. A stream of pyromancy crashed against the coiling night of lightning. Shiv felt himself get ejected across just as the electricity gripping him in place collapsed. One of the strands slipped between his ribs and ground upon his bones. The sensation was disquieting. Shiv felt a series of tremors pass through his body, but then he was gone, materializing right behind Stormhalt again.

Shiv battered the City-Lord with his mana-hydras, stunning the man briefly just as his Adam-bestowed skills changed once more.

Skill Replaced: Commander’s Foresight > Veilpiercer

And in that moment, he executed the rest of his plan. Shiv reached out for his dimensionality and frowned as a Veilpiercer formed within his hands. His senses were going haywire; he was getting strange feelings from all around. It was like the world was pressing its weight on him, like space itself was a fabric he could pull on. 

Once more, Dimensionality made itself known to Shiv, but he realized that the same problems holding his Biomancy back applied to dimensionality as well. It didn't matter that he had a master tier dimensionality skill; he didn't know how to use it.

"Shit," he muttered. He activated Commander's Foresight again, and this time a spike of pain went through his head. Yeah, that's gonna get pretty distracting fast, Shiv thought to himself. He surveyed the scene again, but did a double-take as he realized there was a dimensional pathway opening to his left. A Veilpiercer was bursting out from the rift, and there was only one other person in the room who could do that.

Oh, there you are.

With Adam's general location known, the next part would be to meet up with him and have the Gate Lord deliver the shot. But until he arrived, Shiv needed to hold Stormhalt at bay for a little while longer.

I can do that. Oh, I'm gonna enjoy doing that.

The Deathless launched himself forward. His tides roared with kinetic energy. He slammed into Stormhalt like a falling meteor greeting an unbreaking fortress. The room rumbled with the heavy impact, but the Deathless kept his blows controlled. The air didn’t catch fire; it didn’t ionize into plasma. Shiv channeled every bit of his strength directly into Stormhalt's body. And though the black lightning parried his blows and kept the man within from harm, Stormhalt was still launched back and Shiv went with him.

Leviathan of the Shapeless Tides 501 > 502

The Deathless ignored the many veins of electricity tearing through his torso, mangling his organs, coiling around him. In about one second, he would be reverted across time. For now, he wanted Stormhalt out of position. And so he hooked a hand underneath Stormhalt's left armpit and spiked both of them down. They burst through another section of the bridge and they fell like an arrow descending into a canyon of chaos. The panels lining the wall and floor beneath them were burning, the spell patterns flowing along their surface shredded and spewing magic into the air.

The searing heat staining the divine mana was upon Shiv once more, but through bloodied teeth he gave a rasping laugh. "You know, it didn't take Roland long to kill me at all. Here you are, with the power of a god, and still pathetic."

Shiv felt Stormhalt flinch. More than that, a portion of his chest glistened. His brittleness glowed so bright that it shone through the electric cocoon that shrouded him. He tore at Shiv from within, but before the Deathless could be wrenched apart, he launched himself back a full three seconds.

He materialized right next to the Gate Lord and the Penitent. Can Hu was still sparking. Most of its lower body was little more than a skeletal framework; wires swayed and spat sparks from the many holes left in its torso. Adam didn't look so good either. There was blood seeping out from his hydrokinetic body, but he was there. 

They were alive, and they were going to bring this fight to an end.

The Deathless projected his Psychomancy into Adam's mind just in time for a massive burst of dimensionality to crash down on both of them. He felt the pulling pressure draw them upward. There was an enormous portal forming, a pocket that was trying to swallow them. The Deathless denied the pocket. His Shapeless Tides gave him the power to say no. And just as Adam and Can Hu rose, he reached out and held them still. He poured his vectors into his companions and pinned them in place. And with that, Adam activated Commander's Foresight, and once more, their minds were joined.

"Rebis is down," Shiv said, "but Stormhalt can't be hurt so long as he's wrapped inside Halsur's lightning. But listen, I got an idea," 

Adam sighed. "Shiv, no, I'm not going to blow you up inside this chamber," Adam replied. "Come up with something else. There are other people in this room, and I don't think Can Hu will survive a soul explosion. It's pretty badly damaged right now."

"No, I don't need you to blow me up here. I need you to fire an arrow and create a route for me out of here. I'm going to tackle Stormhalt and drag him across. After that, I go Non-Sequitur and you fire on my decoy body. Then you blow him up.”

Adam thought about that for a second. "That might be able to work. But are you sure you can wrestle with him him for that long?"

"Well, what's the worst that's going to happen? He's kills me halfway?" Shiv chuckled.

Adam, however, had his apprehension. "There are a lot of moving parts to this, Shiv. You need to be able to keep him grappled. We need to move him across. And in the meantime, we need to hope that no other ascendants are teleported into this room. And judging by the sheer amount of pressure that's tugging at us..." 

The Deathless grimaced internally. "You think that's another avatar coming?”

"I'm almost certain that's another avatar. We are out of time, Shiv. We either break this mana core now, or we're going to be overwhelmed."

Something hardened inside the Deathless. "That's not going to happen. We're getting out of this place. I don't care what I have to do. Wait, Adam, earlier—”

my unique skill... it evolved," Adam said hastily. "It's not the Righteous Dawn Ascends anymore. The Shattered Star Unites. Do you know what it does?"

Surprise overtook Shiv. "You don't?"

"No, I'm just channeling my power into you. I have no idea what it does beyond the same thing as the Righteous Dawn Ascends. 

“I'm getting some of your skills. Adam, I managed to activate Commander's Foresight earlier. The skill keeps changing though. Wait, if you can focus on giving me a specific skill, can you make it the one with your vector wings? My Toughness skill was still active earlier, but I had yours as well."

"You're getting my skills?" Adam said, his voice climbing a pitch in disbelief. "But wait, that's why it felt like part of me was slipping out from my body." A feeling of awe emanated from Adam, and it was quickly replaced by a growl of near-playful frustration. "And why is it my Unique Skill is devoted to making you even more of a monster?"

"Well I don't know, Adam. Sometimes hunters like to feed their hawks with all kinds of cool steroid-like elixirs. Maybe the system noticed that you’re my ass-rubber.”

"Never call me that. Also, absolutely no hunter has fed their hawk steroids," Adam deadpanned.

"You don't know that."

"I'm absolutely certain of that, Shiv. If a hawk was fed steroids, it would... it's stupid, Shiv. It's just stupid."

"Well maybe not for this hawk."

"You're not a... you know what? Fine, let's go with that analogy. I'll try to give you my skill, and you do things quickly. I'll open up another dimensional pathway, and we'll see if you can dump Stormhalt across somehow. We need to find Gone, Candles, and Kura. I lost track of them earlier."

"Gone might be down," Shiv said. "Last I saw her, Rebis was trying to break her beneath his foot. Rebis is down too. Not sure if he's dead, though. I caved his skull in pretty good."

"How did you manage to do that? He’s wearing my armor!”

"New Skill Evolution."

Adam groaned. "Don't tell me. Actually, you know what? Tell me. I'm going to take out my frustration on Stormhalt."

"Yeah, so I combined Silver Tongue with my Striking Proficiency. Got me a Sticks and Stones Skill.”

"How in the hells does that work?"

"I call people names, I hurt their feelings, and they get easier to break. Makes me hit them harder, too."

"Of course it does. Alright. Desperate final struggle on three?”

"Yeah, desperate final struggle on three.”

“Three." They both went at the same time. Commander's Foresight ended, and the Azure Sphere exploded over Adam's head once more. This time, Shiv felt a new skill slam into him, but it wasn't the one he needed. However, that skill changed several times, jumping from Adam's Toughness skill, to his Veilpiercer, to his awareness, and then finally his reflexes. Vector-wings exploded out from beside Shiv, and his Inertial Overdrive roared as it was exponentially boosted by the Gate Lord's power.

Inertial Overdrive 165 > 167

Shiv tore on ahead. The world around him slowed by a magnitude, and every string of lightning cleaving through the air went from near-imperceptible to merely being worryingly quick. Shiv dove and tumbled through two slashing bolts, channeled a beam of fire from his blade, and watched it splash off Stormhalt's shoulder. As soon as he teleported, he reverted himself back a second across time. Stormhalt sent an eruption of electricity out from his right shoulder. He managed to strike nothing.

Strider of the Unbending Path 158 > 160

Dodge 31 > 32

Shiv picked Stormhalt up again, wrenching the City Lord free from the air, and just then a Veil Piercer exploded up from between Shiv's legs. It missed his sensitive section by the width of a hair and slammed into Stormhalt's right leg. The dimensional arrow ricocheted off, but beneath Shiv was a pathway. 

The Deathless grinned. 

Stormhalt tried to react, but a flood of Overflow Tides surged into Shiv's right foot, and he pitched the City Lord downward before stomping down with a spike of force. He felt something inside Stormhalt break upon impact. It was the brittle spot he left there earlier. Stormhalt gagged as Shiv tossed him like he was little more than a ball.

He zipped down in a blink, though the black lightning spreading free from him still tried to grasp Shiv. The Deathless went Non-Sequitur, avoiding the worst of the blows, but his decoy body was utterly shredded. He started losing vitality at an alarming rate, but he wasn't far from the mana core. Once more, the Deathless flung himself before the massive breach, and he poured his vitae into it.

The moment he did, a lance of pain flashed across his neck. Blood flowed freely, and he felt the length of a cold blade lodged tight in his trachea. His Pillar of Orichalcum had stopped him from getting fully beheaded, but embedded halfway in his throat was a length of metal that hissed and pumped loads of taint through Shiv's veins. Immediately, a fever started overtaking him. His Plaguefueled steel went into overdrive, and a deformed hand clasped him by the skull.

He was lifted off the floor by the enormous and nightmarish form of Daughter. She emerged from seemingly nowhere and hissed a foul breath in his face. "You hurt me earlier. Hurt me!" 

Shiv gagged on his blood. Her blood body was wreathed in black tar, and he could still see the wound he left on her misshapen skull. Within the rippling currents of foul fluid gushing along her torso, Shiv caught sight of the current woman that Daughter was using as a vessel. This one wasn't psychotic. This one was distinctly terrified. Shiv could see her face, pale and white, with tear streaks running down fast.

The Deathless's stomach turned. He reached up and gripped Daughter's arm, the mana core all but forgotten. With every heartbeat, he generated new tides, but though he pushed hard against Daughter's power, she was an Ascendant. It was all he could do to stop her from driving the blade all the way through and finishing him off. 

A part of Shiv snarled for him to swing his blade up, to cut Daughter down even if it meant sacrificing his own life. But there was a girl inside the Ascendant, and this one was all too human. Shiv didn't know if he had the will to.

A bloody blade erupted from Daughter's heart. The nightmarish ascendant screeched, and the girl it used as a vessel gasped. A golden blade pushed the girl free from the spilling mess that was Daughter, and Shiv felt his heart skip a beat as he looked into her eyes. Hovering behind the girl was one of Kura's golden shadows. It seemed more cracked than usual, but at least the elven Chronomancer was still in the fight.

"Go! Collapse the core! I'll cover you!" Kura declared through her shadow. Just then, another blur of motion came from Shiv's right, but a bolt of golden lightning slammed into the oncoming attack.

Gone slashed at Anthony, but the old man was surprisingly fast. He shifted back into the shadows, and Shiv found a curtain of blackness falling upon them. No more time. He launched his vitae free once more, and a rush of red and white mana poured into the wound within the wound that was the mana core. He groped blindly, trying to find as many skills as he could to corrupt. Ignoring the mortal wound lining his neck, Shiv sank his power deep within the core.

And instead of tearing, he focused. He remembered what Udraal showed him earlier. He just needed— 

Something slammed into his right leg, and it ceased to be. Then came a massive blast that shattered his pillar and rendered everything beneath his hip little more than a spray of gore. Bloody tatters erupted free from his body, and Shiv found himself tumbling forward. It didn't even hurt. He was simply broken, numb. He wasn't sure what hit him, only that it had utterly destroyed him, rendered him unable to stand. 

Even so, Shiv continued pulling at the mana core. A resounding crash of steel on steel echoed behind him, and even more golden shadows formed over his body. Just then, a dead orc splashed down ahead of Shiv. Half of its face remained; the other half was a bloody mesh, caved in by repeated blows. The orc's chest rose and fell a final time as its fingers slackened. Through it all, it never stopped smiling.

The skinned monster never stopped smiling. Something about that inspired Shiv, made him keep going. He remembered what Udraal showed him. He had to switch lures between different skills. He needed to add pieces from himself as well. But right now, he wasn't just himself. There was Adam as well. Shiv froze time. It didn't buy him much more room for his sabotage, but it did delay the ascendants. 

Their avatars weren't all immune to Shiv's Strider of the Unbending Path, and that forced the Ascendants themselves to use other means to get to him, other means that were being stymied by his many allies.

Another strike came from above. A flash of Animancy hissed down in an impending blow. Shiv felt the shiver in the air. He'd been in enough battles to guess what was about to happen. He prepared for death. Death never came. Gone crashed down ahead of him, her clawed fingers bearing tight in Anthony's arm. The old man gritted his teeth and got atop the goblin. Slowly he started pressing down. Gone was fast. Gone was faster than even time itself. But Gone wasn't very strong

She was losing the fight, and fast. Shiv made eye contact with her. Once more, the ugly choice from earlier returned. The core or the life of one of his companions. There wasn't time to think. There wasn't time to deliberate. And ultimately, there wasn't a real choice at all. If he tried to help Gon, they were all going to die here. They were all going to be put back in their cages.

Just as the old man's knife began sinking into Gone's chest, a burning figure slammed down on him out of nowhere, and Anthony bit back a snarl as Candles gave him a branding hug. Both of Candles's legs were missing. Flames were spewing free in molten sprays from the many wounds lining the pyromaniac’s lower body, and what seemed like his intestines were swinging out. Despite all this, Candles sounded like he was in high spirits. "Hey, you look like you could use a light."

Shiv turned his attention away. His vitae spread, jumping from one skill within the core to another, and as time went on, he began to inject more of himself inside. At some point, he died. But he kept working. Even as something else hit him, ripping away half his vitality, he kept working. Here was freedom. Right on the precipice, he was so close, so—

"Deathless!" Stormhalt cried aloud. Everything seemed to stop. Everything went black, and through the veil of unpierceable darkness, the City-Lord plunged. Within his hand was an ethereal spear of lightning bestowed upon by Halsur, poised to strike Shiv down once and for all.

Shiv wasn't dying. He didn't have enough time. He didn't. Two blurring motions washed over him. The first seemed like a scrawl, a stroke of charcoal dragged across paper. Stormhalt's spear froze, locked on the border marked by the etching. The second was the swing of a brush, a brush that absolutely disintegrated Stormhalt's spear. A burst of colors spilled out through the air, and the lightning recoiled for the first time. Shiv heard Halsur scream.

Just then, a figure Shiv didn't expect to see loomed over him. She looked just as she did back within Gate Thebes: the scholar's cloak, the large tome on her back, the brush, the pencil, one in each hand. 

"Well? What is the hesitation? See it done, Deathless?" the Educator said, not hiding the scorn in her voice at all. "I didn't come here and expose myself on Udraal's behalf just to have you make it all for naught."

Shiv's mind reeled, but he pushed past it. He connected another skill, injected another bit of himself, and soon the mana core began to shudder, began to groan. Adam appeared beside him, and he had a Veilpiercer drawn, aimed at the Educator. “You—”

“Me,” The Educator scoffed. She intercepted a shot launched directly by Adam just as Shiv inserted another portion of his own legend into the core.

Several things shattered at once.

The first was the dimensional arrow. 

The second was the border the Educator sketched as Halsur’s lightning tore it wide open.

And the third was the core itself. 

The fractured shape of the mana core thundered, groaned, and then burst apart as a flood of overwhelming incandescence rushed out into the chamber. It was accompanied by Chronomancy, Dynamancy, Pyromancy, and more… so much more.

Shiv turned. Shiv tried to reach out for Adam—but everything around him faded in a blast of light. But as an agonizing heat clawed its way to Shiv’s very core, something else latched onto him. It was a weight of a deed well done. It was the death of a grand core. It was the bestowal of one of the system’s newest gifts.

Category 20 Gate Closed

Equipment Gained: [Generating Legendary Weapon]